Scattered Dreams: The Kathyrn Messenger Story

From People magazine, December 20, 1993

Tyne Daly and Gerald McRaney star in this movie based on actual events in 1951.Parents of five, they're migrant farmers who want to put down roots in a Florida town. Instead, the couple is tossed in prison on trumped-up charges.

Upon release, Daly begins a tireless battle to reclaim her brood. Because the three youngest have been declared wards of the state, Daly, an illiterate, becomes by sheer determination a self-tutored lawyer to fight a system stacked against her.

Yes, it's a mawkish melodrama, but it packs a mule kick. Credit Daly with a savvy and moving performance as a woman of simple valor. Grade A-